Category: Health

The Malaysian Quarantine and Inspection Services (Maqis) has revealed that it found worms that can cause the anisakiasis disease in samples of a brand of sardines from China brought in through the North Butterworth Container Terminal in Penang on May 14.

Maqis director-general Mokhtaruddin Husain said the worms were discovered through physical examination and sampling conducted on several sardine cans that arrived in two containers with an estimated weight of 36,720kg and valued at about RM200,000.

The containers were subsequently seized, he said in a statement yesterday.

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He said the worms were likely from the genus Anisakis spp which causes the anisakiasis disease in humans. This disease normally occurs when humans eat seafood such as raw fish or fish not fully cooked and infected with the Anisakis spp parasite, he said.

Anisakiasis is a parasitic and zoonotic disease brought about by a congenital fish causing the Anisakis spp nematode (worm) that attacks the gastrointestinal system such as the stomach and intestines of humans. It can cause gastrointestinal problems or symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting.

Mokhtaruddin said the act of importing any plant, animal, carcass, fish, agricultural product, soil or microorganism with pests, diseases or contaminants was an offence under Section 14 of the Malaysian Quarantine and Inspection Services Act 2011.

The case is being investigated for further action, he said.

It is no news to the world that South Africa who suffered the greatest torments under the British apartheid colonial rule is known to the highest country in the world affected by HIV/AIDS. Is this just a coincident or a deliberate act by some persons?

A former member of a South African-based mercenary group revealed in a shocking confession that he and the group tried to purposely infect Black South Africans with HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s.

The claims were made known via a new documentary entitled Cold Case Hammarskjöld, which premiered at the Sundance film festival in the US. Jones said he worked as an intelligence officer with the SA Institute for Maritime Research (SAIMR) which orchestrated coups and violence in Africa.

According to The Guardian, Jones claims that SAIMR leader Keith Maxwell had a “racist, apocalyptic obsession with HIV/Aids.”

Maxwell reportedly posed as a doctor while running clinics in poor, mostly Black neighborhoods in the Johannesburg area, which gave him an avenue to conduct his sinister experiments.

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“What easier way to get a guinea pig than [when] you live in an apartheid system?” Jones says in the film. “Black people have got no rights, they need medical treatment. There’s a white ‘philanthropist’ coming in and saying, ‘You know, I’ll open up these clinics and I’ll treat you.’ And meantime [he is] actually the wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Here’s another take on the troubling new information.

Inside an Indiana aqua-farming complex, thousands of salmon eggs genetically modified to grow faster than normal are hatching into tiny fish. After growing to roughly 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) in indoor tanks, they could be served in restaurants by late next year.

The salmon produced by AquaBounty are the first genetically modified animals approved for human consumption in the U.S. They represent one way companies are pushing to transform the plants and animals we eat, even as consumer advocacy groups call for greater caution.

AquaBounty hasn’t sold any fish in the U.S. yet, but it says its salmon may first turn up in places like restaurants or university cafeterias, which would decide whether to tell diners that the fish are genetically modified.

“It’s their customer, not ours,” said Sylvia Wulf, AquaBounty’s CEO.

To produce its fish, Aquabounty injected Atlantic salmon with DNA from other fish species that make them grow to full size in about 18 months, which could be about twice as fast as regular salmon. The company says that’s more efficient since less feed is required. The eggs were shipped to the U.S. from the company’s Canadian location last month after clearing final regulatory hurdles.

Kroger and Whole Foods

As Aqua-Bounty worked through years of government approvals, several grocers including Kroger and Whole Foods responded to a campaign by consumer groups with a vow to not sell the fish.

Already, most corn and soy in the U.S. is genetically modified to be more resistant to pests and herbicides. But as genetically modified salmon make their way to dinner plates, the pace of change to the food supply could accelerate.

Executive Order

This month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to simplify regulations for genetically engineered plants and animals. The move comes as companies are turning to a newer gene-editing technology that makes it easier to tinker with plant and animal DNA.

That’s blurring the lines around what should be considered a genetically modified organism, and how such foods are perceived. In 2015, an Associated Press-GfK poll found two-thirds of Americans supported labeling of genetically modified ingredients on food packages. The following year, Congress directed regulators to establish national standards for disclosing the presence of bioengineered foods.

Aqua-Bounty’s salmon

But foods made with the newer gene-editing technique wouldn’t necessarily be subject to the regulation, since companies say the resulting plants and animals could theoretically be produced with conventional breeding. And while AquaBounty’s salmon was produced with an older technique, it may not always be obvious when people are buying the fish either.

The disclosure regulation will start being implemented next year, but mandatory compliance doesn’t start until 2022. And under the rules , companies can provide the disclosures through codes people scan with their phones. The disclosure also would note that products have “bioengineered” ingredients, which advocacy groups say could be confusing.

“Nobody uses that term,” said Amy van Saun of the Center for Food Safety, who noted “genetically engineered” or “genetically modified” are more common.

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The center is suing over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of AquaBounty’s salmon, and it is among the groups that asked grocers to pledge they wouldn’t sell the fish.

Center for Science

The disclosure rules also do not apply to restaurants and similar food service establishments. Greg Jaffe of the Center for Science in the Public Interest noted that AquaBounty’s fish will represent a tiny fraction of the U.S. salmon supply, and that many people may not care whether they’re eating genetically modified food. Still, he said restaurants could make the information available to customers who ask about it.

“The information should not be hidden,” Jaffe said.

AquaBounty’s Wulf noted its salmon has already been sold in Canada, where disclosure is not required. She said the company believes in transparency but questioned why people would want to know whether the fish are genetically modified.

“It’s identical to Atlantic salmon, with the exception of one gene,” she said.

Synthetic opioid use is booming, the United Nations said on Wednesday in a worldwide drug report that showed deaths in the United States from overdoses still rising and a “crisis” of tramadol use emerging in parts of Africa.

The estimated number of people using opioids – an umbrella term for drugs ranging from opium and derivatives such as heroin to synthetics like fentanyl and tramadol – in 2017 was 56% higher than in 2016, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said.

While that surge, to 53.4 million people worldwide, was due to more data being available thanks to surveys in Nigeria and India, it also highlighted the scale of the problem despite a drought-related fall in opium production last year in the world’s biggest producer, Afghanistan.

Synthetic opioids like fentanyl continue to be the main cause of opioid overdose deaths in the United States, which rose 13% to more than 47,000 in 2017, further illustrating what President Donald Trump has declared a public health emergency.

“The opioid crisis that has featured in far fewer headlines but that requires equally urgent international attention is the non-medical use of the painkiller tramadol, particularly in Africa,” the UNODC 2019 World Drug Report said.

“The limited data available indicate that the tramadol being used for non-medical purposes in Africa is being illicitly manufactured in South Asia and trafficked to the region, as well as to parts of the Middle East,” it said.

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Seizures of tramadol globally have surged from less than 10 kg in 2010 to almost 9 tonnes in 2013 and 125 tonnes in 2017, the report showed, adding that the problem was particularly severe in West, Central and North Africa.

Several West African countries have reported that tramadol is one of the most widely used drugs for non-medical purposes after cannabis, which remains by far the most popular globally, the report said, adding that reasons for using tramadol vary.

“Some consume tramadol for its calming, analgesic and anti-fatigue effects in order to improve intellectual, physical and working performances, and to lessen the need for sleep and decrease appetite,” the report said.

“In farming communities, there are reports of tramadol being used by humans and fed to cattle to enable them to work under extreme conditions. Others use tramadol as a recreational drug on account of its stimulant and euphoric effects, or to improve sexual stamina.”

A global survey has identified Nigeria as the second in the world among countries where open defecation is prevalent.

Only India ranked worse than Nigeria in the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH NORM) survey conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The Nigerian Ministry of Water Resources and National Bureau of Statistics took part in the Nigerian survey, an official said.

Apart from Nigeria, five other African countries are among the worst 10 where open defecation is prevalent. They include Ethiopia (3rd), Niger (7th), Sudan (8th), Chad (9th) and Mozambique (10th).

Other countries in the worst 10 are Indonesia (4th), Pakistan (5th), and China (6th).

A Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) specialist, Bioye Ogunjobi, spoke about the survey on Tuesday in Ibadan.

He spoke at a workshop on ‘Clean Nigeria: Use The Toilet campaign’ funded by the European Union and UKaid, and implemented by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).

According to Mr Ogunjobi, 47 million Nigerians, representing 24.4 per cent of the population, still practice open defecation.

Statistics

Mr Ogunjobi said only 12 per cent of markets and motor parks in Nigeria have WASH facilities while 20 per cent have provided a place for washing of hands.

He said 32 million Nigerians are using unimproved toilets and do not have access to clean water and proper sanitation.

“In fact, Nigeria has second highest number of people who practice open defecation worldwide (47 million), after India.”

The specialist said diseases like pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria, combined with underlying malnutrition, are responsible for most deaths of infants and children.

He said Nigeria’s population of 12 million stunted children and two million children suffering from acute malnutrition are all as a result of bad sanitation system in the country.

“About 50 per cent of children’s deaths are related to malnutrition; 32 per cent of children under 5 are stunted; 90 per cent households use water that is contaminated; 12 million under 5 children in Nigeria are stunted,” he said.

“In four years, between 2014 and 2018, India removed about 500 million from open defecation,” he said.

Mr Ogunjobi, who said the use of unimproved latrine is as bad as open defecation, said only 13 local government areas in Nigeria spread across Jigawa, Bauchi, Benue and Cross River have been certified as Open Defecation Free.

Gender-sensitive toilets and WASH services in Nigeria.

According to him, only six per cent of primary schools have access to gender-sensitive toilets and WASH services in Nigeria.

“The global standard for every primary school is to have a gender-sensitive toilet. The global standard is one toilet to twenty pupils but now, we have over forty people to one toilet, “he said

“In Benue, only one community has been certified. There are communities that would have been certified ODF but they still have problem with their market places and motor parks. Therefore, they are yet to be certified. If a community is 99 percent ODF, it cannot be certified until is 100 percent,” he said.

Mr Ogunjobi explained that although, the government could not build toilets for all, this can be done through Public Private Partnership.

He said most Nigerians are yet to realise how deadly OD is to children under five years old, the public and the society at large.

The head of Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB), Olumide Osanyipeju, said the federal government recently declared a state of emergency on WASH Nigeria and launched an ODF campaign strategy to jump-start the country’s journey towards ending open defecation.

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He said the Federal Ministry of Water Resources is currently leading the ODF campaign to end open defecation in the country by 2025, and achieve universal access to safely manage sanitation by 2030.

Mr Osanyinpeju said this was being done with support from UNICEF, in partnership with inter-ministerial agencies, civil society partners, the private sector, and the people of Nigeria.”

He said the Partnership for Expanded Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH) programme was formulated and launched in 2016 in direct response to the challenges affecting the rural WASH sector.

The aim, according to him, was achieving 100 percent WASH coverage in rural areas.

“Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet” campaign is one of the most ambitious behaviour-change campaigns in Nigeria with a strong citizen and public engagement component. The campaign to end open defecation is a key initiative that will reach many unserved populations.”

Background

Open defecation is the human practice of defecating outside rather than into a toilet. People may choose fields, bushes, forests, ditches, streets, canals or other open space for defecation.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported how open defecation is the norm in many higher institutions of learning in Nigeria because the toilet facilities are not properly managed.

The World Health Organisation says open defecation pollutes the environment and causes health problems. It linked it to the high prevalence of water-borne infectious diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea and hepatitis A, among others, and high child mortality, poor nutrition and poverty in the country.

Also, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in its advisory campaign said open defecation is one of the major causes of cholera in the country.

With the rainy season every year comes an increase in cholera cases across Nigeria.

UNICEF said only 13 of the 774 local government areas in Nigeria are free from the practice of open defecation

In November 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari declared a state of emergency in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector.

He reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to eliminating open defecation by the 2025.

However, despite the declaration by the president, 47 million people still defecate in the open while 32 million use unimproved toilets.

The Kenyan High Court has ruled that rape survivors have the right to an abortion and ordered authorities to pay almost US$30 000 in damages to the mother of a teenage victim who died after a botched abortion. This was as a result of a directive by the Ministry of Health to withdraw national standard guidelines for the procedure.

Abortion is illegal in Kenya – unless a woman’s life or health is in danger and emergency treatment is required. The government had been clamping down on health facilities such as Marie Stopes International, which offers safe reproductive health services, before it was agreed that the ban endangered the lives of thousands of women.

According to a Kenyan government health survey conducted in 2014, 18% of women aged between 15 and 19 were mothers or pregnant with their first child.

Kenyan High Court

This latest ruling by the Kenyan High Court to allow abortion in rape cases was initiated by a petition filed in 2015. A 15-year-old girl known only by her initials JMM, to protect her identity, became pregnant after she was raped in 2014. Due to injuries from a backstreet abortion that later led to her death, her mother, along with the Federation of Women Lawyers, filed the petition, claiming that authorities failed to provide the girl with proper post-abortion care, and called on the government to implement measures for access to safe abortions.

This week, High Court judges Aggrey Muchelule, John Mativo, George Odunga, Lydia Achode and Mumbi Ngugi ruled that rape survivors now have the right to an abortion and awarded JMM’s mother damages of 3 million Kenyan shillings.

Professional Pregnancy resulting

“If in the opinion of a trained medical professional pregnancy resulting from rape or defilement poses a danger to the life or health of the mother – that is, her physical, mental and social well-being– it may be terminated under … sections of the constitution,” said Justice Muchelule.

JMM’s mother said in a statement that she hoped thousands of lives would be saved through the implementation of the order. “I know this is what my daughter, JMM, would have wanted to see – that justice is served, and that Kenyan women and girls in need of emergency health services, including abortion, regardless of their socio-economic status, are able to access safe and legal abortion services.”

Read: Kenya bans Marie Stopes from offering safe reproductive health services

Withdrawal of guidelines

The standard guidelines for reducing mortality and morbidity from unsafe abortions were developed in 2012 to reduce maternal mortality in the country. They addressed issues that would help prevent abortion in the first place, methods of procuring safe abortions and post-abortion care. However, the Kenyan Ministry of Health withdrew the contentious guidelines and health workers were directed to stop attending training on safe abortion.

According to Reuters, campaigners say that Kenyan authorities, influenced by powerful Christian groups, have in recent years made it harder for women to access safe abortions by withdrawing guidelines on conducting abortions and banning health workers from training.

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In their ruling the High Court said the Ministry of Health’s actions had violated the constitution, which guarantees the right to health, life and dignity of women, ordering authorities to reinstate the guidelines and provide health professionals with training.

“JMM’s case is a window into the plight of many other women and girls who have no place to turn and no access to information or reproductive health services,” said Evelyne Opondo, the senior regional director for Africa at the Centre for Reproductive Rights.

The ruling means that despite abortion remaining illegal as a whole, health providers can now not only attend training but can also offer abortion and post-abortion care services without the fear of being prosecuted – in specific cases.

China said on Friday it has banned direct and indirect imports of pigs, wild boars and related products from Laos due to the first African swine fever outbreaks reported by the Southeast Asian nation on June 20.

“Illegally imported pigs, wild boars and their products from Laos intercepted by the frontier defense departments shall be destroyed under the supervision of the customs,” China’s General Administration of Customs said in a statement.

China will also increase quarantine inspection of packages and passenger baggage from Laos, it said.

If pigs, wild boars and their products from Laos are found coming into China via ships, aircraft, road vehicles and railway trains, the shipments will be sealed and disposed of, it said.

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Laos confirmed its first outbreaks of deadly African swine fever – which is fatal to pigs but does not harm humans – in its southern province of Saravane, the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health said on Thursday.

China has reported more than 120 outbreaks of the disease in all its mainland provinces and regions, as well as Hainan island and Hong Kong, since it was first detected in the country in early August 2018.

In a statement, the General Administration of customs said, “Illegally imported pigs, wild boars and their products from Laos intercepted by the frontier defense departments shall be destroyed under the supervision of the customs.”

As ASF sweeps across Asia, Laos confirmed its first outbreaks of the disease – which is fatal to pigs but does not harm humans – in the southern province of Saravane, the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health said on Thursday.
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/china-bans-pig-imports-from-laos-due-to-african-swine-fever-11649718

BEIJING (Reuters)